All Forum Posts by: Jennifer L.

I got the videos to work. That is a lot of crap they left behind.

I'm unable to view the videos. They are set to private. 

@Will Barnard Congrats!  

@Sue Bohlin  I have used Cozy.co for the past year. The cost is free.  The payment takes 5 business days to deposit into my account. The tenant cannot make a partial payment- but multiple tenants can set up their portions.  You, however, get one deposit (in full) per lease. 

I've never had a serve a 5 day notice. Payments through Cozy.co have always been on time. 

@Mike MakkarJust to be clear, expungements of criminal convictions are completely legal and signed off by a judge.  Theoretically, I suppose anyone could "hack" a government court record to delete an eviction. It wouldn't get rid of the hard file, though. I also figure if someone is smart enough to do that level of hacking, they could probably get a job that paid enough to avoid evictions in the first place. (Or engage in some profitable cyber-scheme to get the money to pay rent. ;-). )

Mike McGee One other thing that might prevent a criminal conviction from popping up on a report: in some instances, if a person does well, they can have a conviction expunged from their record after completing probation. The conviction would still pop up for more sensitive employment searches like police officers or day care workers, but it wouldn't be reported on this sort of a background check.

@Joe Villeneuve 

Your numbers are off. 

I purchased the home for $340k in1999. The home is worth about $700k now and I owe $50k.  

When I refi'd the difference in payments was $400/ month. When I refi'd it was because I'd save $90k in payments over the life of the loan.  I'm not sure where you are coming up with $20k in cost.  

It is probably fair to say that at first it cost me $10k a year to own a property in California prior to raising rent. (Taxes, insurance, extra payments, etc.) Currently, it is costing more like $5k per year.  But in two years, it will bring close to $30k/year after expenses. 

And I know it is a lot more than sticking that money in a IRA over the years. And when the kids are out of school, instead of having a depleted account, I'll have house in Silicon Valley earning me a decent supplement to my income. I'm not complaining.

I had good luck with a Tuesday evening open house last May. 7-8 visitors in 2 hours and 4 applications. I think February is a more difficult time to rent and people have plans on Friday night.

The traditional investors here advise against negative or 0 cash flow. There are scenarios where this does make sense, however. I purchased a SFR for $340k in 1999. I got married and rented it out in 2000. I was breaking even at that point. I had a couple of children and refi'd it to a 15 year loan in 2004. At that point, I was in negative cash flow. But my goal at that point was to be able to save for my kids' college expenses without being locked into a 529 plan. Fast forward to 2016, I'm two years away from paying it off (extra principle payments) and my oldest child graduates high school in 3 years. I have over $650k in equity- far more than if I had socked money away in a 529 plan- and I have options on funding the kids' college: from rental cash flow to borrowing against equity.

@Raman Bindlish  I would take care of the railing spacings since you would be liable if a child got hurt, especially because you had notice.  Though the tenants' children are teenagers, they may have family or friends with young children visit.  I would take the opportunity in fixing the railing to have the contractor advise you about whether the stairway was built to code for that year.

I'm curious about the tenants' other complaints.  Are they reasonable?